Livestock
Mo. Steer Feedout features variation
The 2009-2010 Missouri Steer Feedout began on Nov. 3 with the processing of 118 steers at the Joplin Regional Stockyards.
Those steers will join with 80 to 90 head that were weighed in and tagged in the northeast and northwest parts of Missouri.
All of the steers were shipped to the Brian Bentley Feedlot, Macedonia, Iowa.
That lot is a cooperative member of the Tri-County Steer Carcass Futurity program according to Eldon Cole, the University of Missouri extension livestock specialist who coordinates this effort in the southwest of Missouri.
“The ten producers who sent cattle from southwest Missouri have all participated in the feedout program before. They have found out that if you want to receive complete feedlot performance and carcass data back from calves you raise, the feedout is the surest way to do it, said Cole.
In addition, all of the cattle sent recently have been age and source verified which qualifies them for a $25 to $35 premium when harvested.
“The age and source premium does require some extra record work, but most of the participants already keep the data, such as birth dates anyway,” said Cole.
As part of the weigh-in, Corbitt Wall, USDA market grader, evaluated each calf for frame, muscling, flesh and assigned an expected price to them. The price was based on the previous day’s sale at the Joplin Stockyards.
The 118 steers, all born from January 1 to late April, averaged 640 pounds and ranged from 432 to 862 pounds. Frame size was 60 percent in the Medium range and 40 percent in Large with no Small frame steers. Muscle scores all fell in the 1 and 2 categories.
Sixty-five percent of the entries were called 1’s on muscling. The flesh scores ranged from a 4 (thin) to a 7 (fleshy). The majority fell in the 6 range.
The most variation showed up when the price was placed on the steers.
The average price overall was $88.69 per hundred, but one calf was priced at $75 with the extreme top $104.
The low price was put on a 654 pound, Medium frame, 2 Muscle score, 7 flesh, Hereford-sired calf. The top-priced steer per cwt was a Medium frame, 1 Muscle, 6 flesh, high percentage Angus steer. His entry weight was 534 pounds.
“The steers were only 6 days different in age and came out of the same herd. It will be interesting to follow them all the way through harvest next spring. That’s what makes the feedout and ownership retention a valuable educational tool,” said Cole.
For more information, contact any of the MU Extension livestock specialists in southwest Missouri: Eldon Cole in Mt. Vernon, (417) 466-3102; Gary Naylor in Dallas County, (417) 345-7551; and Dona Goede in Cedar County, (417) 276-3313
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